Oil Industry Trade Group Mulls Embrace of Carbon Pricing (1)

The American Petroleum Institute is considering throwing its weight behind a government-imposed price on carbon dioxide emissions as a way to slow global warming, a major policy shift by the oil industry’s top trade group.

API’s draft policy statement does not endorse a specific mechanism, such as a tax on carbon dioxide emissions or cap-and-trade system, but endorses what it calls a market-based, economy-wide policy, according to two people familiar with the discussions. It could receive a vote by the group’s executive board later this week.

Proponents argue that a carbon tax that increases the cost of energy derived from ...